Welcome to Week 15 in my kitchen…Chocolate and lots of sprinkles from Lily she has been cake making…It is so hot in the kitchen…I know it is the time of year and Songkram is this weekend the water will be most welcome…

Lily has been joined by her little friend for a few days a treat for her as she doesn’t get out of the village very often and all she keeps saying is Wow! Bless her…We went shopping yesterday which she loved and she goes swimming while Lily is having her lessons…A great leveller for us when you realise so many children are not so fortunate…

Lily’s Chocolate Cakes… Makes 12.

Preheat the oven to 177 C/Gas mark 4

3/4 cup of all-purpose flour

1/2 cup of good cocoa powder

3/4 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 large egg at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar I used raw cane sugar

1/3 cup of coconut oil

1/2 cup of buttermilk

2 tsp real vanilla essence

Let’s Bake…

Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl except for the sugars and stir or whisk to combine.

In a separate bowl add the eggs and whisk with the sugar and vanilla essence.

Pour half of the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and combine, then half of the buttermilk and repeat stirring until combined the mixture will be quite thin and batter-like.

Pour the mix into 12 cake cases it will only come half way but will rise…

When the cakes are cooled then the fun begins …The icing…

The recipe stated 20 mins but my (Thai) oven needed a further 7 mins…and I increased the heat to Gas 5…

Having been given a bag of Kaffir Limes and the leaves I got to thinking about what I could do apart from zesting and freezing the zest for recipes which although very nice you can only use so much…

Ingredients.

1 lb Kaffir limes

3/4 lb Limes

4 cups of filtered water

4 cups of granulated sugar

Let’s Cook!

Wash the limes really well cut them in half and then slice very thin half-moon slices. The regular limes I removed the peel and segmented them.

Cover the prepared fruit with the water and put in the fridge overnight or for up to 48 hrs…The smell of limes was amazing.

When ready pour the mixture into a heavy based saucepan and add the sugar bring to the boil stirring until the sugar is dissolved keep stirring occasionally until the temperature reaches 222 F on a sugar thermometer. I stirred it almost constantly as I am very good at forgetting and burning anything containing sugar…

When ready remove from the heat and transfer to sterilised jars. Once cool I keep refrigerated. It is a lovely marmalade if you love marmalade with lots of peel like I do and has a strong lime taste which I love and takes away from the sweetness… I made half the recipe as I always do when I am trying something for the first time…

Kanaa Moo Krob was one of the other stir-fries I made this week quick and easy…I also love kale although yesterday I had some lovely tenderstem broccoli to use.

Ingredients:

2 Belly Pork Strips.

8 Large leaves of Kale.

3/4 cloves Garlic. squashed with the flat blade of a knife.

2/3 birds eye chillies.

2 tbsp Oyster Sauce

1 tbsp Soy Sauce

2/3 shakes of Maggi Sauce.

Half tbsp. Oil.

Let’s Cook!

Cook Belly Pork in the oven until tender and crispy. For about 30 mins.

I normally cook on about 180/200 degrees to start and then reduce heat slightly to 160 degrees. When the pork is tender turn up the heat to crisp the pork. When nice and crispy remove the pork from the oven and chop into bite pieces.

Heat the wok or large frypan and add half tablespoon oil.

Add crushed garlic and chillies, add little hot water and cook for 1 min…at this point the chillies may overpower you..ha ha….turn on expel fan and add chopped Kale.

Stems first if using as they take longer to cook. I use stems of Kale also if they are quite thick slice into 2-inch pieces.

Cook for 2 mins and add remainder of Kale leaves and turn over a few times ….I use fish slice as I find it easier to just turn kale over.

Add 2 tbsp Oyster Sauce and 1 tbsp Soy along with few shakes of Maggi ( seasoning Sauce). Taste and adjust if necessary. Cook for further 2/3 mins.

Add crispy Pork turn or stir a few times to mix.

Check the seasoning again and serve with steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Thank you for joining me in my kitchen this week…xx

Before I go just a little reminder that I have been nominated in the Bloggers Bash Awards and I am chuffed to bits and if you have a favourite blogger who has been nominated then the vote is open so please make their day and cast your vote…

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then I bid you welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

MeWe is a new social media and one which many of us are turning to mainly migrating over to as FB has banned many of my friends and for what seems no good reason that we can see I hope you will join us there.

I am pleased it brought back memories, Jacqui…I love cooking with children it brings a lot of pleasure and they can be surprisingly good especially with flavours as they have no preconceived ideas…as to what should and shouldn’t be paired together 🙂

Reblogged this on Smorgasbord Blog Magazine and commented:
Some more delights from the kitchen of Carol Taylor in Thailand with her mini chef Lily leading the team on Chocolate cupcakes… and then there is Kaffir Lime marmalade and another fabulous Thai inspired stir fry..